For the sake of convenience and safety, consumers often substitute artificial trees, constructed of metal and plastic, for natural trees when decorating homes, offices, and other spaces, especially during the holidays. Such artificial trees generally include multiple tree sections joined at the trunk and held erect by a floor-based tree stand. Traditionally, consumers wrap strings of lights about the artificial tree, or lights are included as a part of a tree to enhance the decorative quality of the tree display.
Light strings on the tree may include simple light strings with single-color lamps meant to be powered on or off. Other light strings on trees may be more sophisticated, and configured to be selectively controlled to produce light displays, such as flashing lights, color-changing lights, twinkling lights, chasing lights, and so on. Power to light strings may also be selectively controlled by a timer device that controls powering of the light strings for predetermined amounts of time during a 24-hour period.
However, known devices for selectively controlling light strings, particularly those on a lighted artificial tree, are not always particularly user friendly. For example, to select a particular light display or pattern, a user must cycle through various patterns, waiting at each selection to see enough of the display or pattern to discern what it is, e.g., slow color changing from red to green to blue, which takes time. For devices controlling the amount of time that the decorative timer will be powered on, a user typically must pick up the device or a portion thereof, and view indicia on a housing or box corresponding to a switch.